Switch-lever lock.



A. A. STROM.

SWITCH LEVER LOCK.

APPLIGATION FILED JULY 15, 1909.

934,853, Patented Sept. 21, 1909.

UNITED STATES PATENT @FFICE.

AXEL A. STROM, OF AUSTIN, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO PETTIBONE, MULLIKEN & 00., OF

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

SWITGI-I-LEVER LOCK.

Application filed July 15 1'0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Axel, A. S'InoM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Austin, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Switch-Lever Locks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the class of locks employed to cooperate with switch-stands, of the type in which the operating-lever is turned through a vertical plane for throwing the switch and usually carries a weight on its outer end; the lock serving to present to the lever, when thrown, an abutment against its accidental rise.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a broken plan view showing a switchstand equipped with a lock of my improved construction, at each end of the throw of the operating lever, and Fig. 2 is a section on line 2, Fig. 1.

My improved lever-lock is applicable to any construction of switchstand of the type referred to, but I show it in the accompanying drawing, by way of illustrating its operation, in connection with the switch-stand which forms the subject of my pending application, Serial No. 507,854 filed July 15, 1909, in which the casing 3 containing the switch-operating mechanism, connected with the switch through the medium of a switchbar indicated at 3 is provided in its crownportion with a cam-slot 4 through which the operating-lever 5 passes from the switchoperating mechanism to which it is fulcrumed, whereby in throwing the lever its engagement with the cam-slot causes it tomove in the direction of throwing the switch and thus actuates the switch-throwing mechanism to effect such throw.

The lever-lock is denoted as a whole by the reference-character 6. It consists of a metal bar 7, shown of'rectangular shape with a threaded stem 8 on one end and provided with a slot 9 extending inwardly from its opposite end, the slot rendering the bar bifurcated or of the general shape of a tuningfork; and in the slot is pivotally hung, near the outer end thereof, the abutment 10 for a lever 5. The pivotal abutment 10 is preferably the fiat-sided metal body illustrated, rounded at its pivotal end and straight at its free end, which is that presented, in operation, to the switch-lever. The abutment tends, by the manner of hanging it in the Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 21, 1909.

1909. Serial No. 507,856.

fork, whether the bar 7 be set in a vertical operative position, as it may be, or in the inclined operative position in which it is represented in Fig. 2, to assume by gravity a pendent condition in the slot (3, wherein its longitudinal center coincides with that of the fork thereby to maintain it normally from protruding into the path of the lever 5; and it is prevented from swinging unduly far in either direction by stops 11 and 12, provided respectively on its opposite edges to engage the bar at opposite sides of the slot; and the abutment contains a transverse hole 13 to receive the shackle of a padlock 14.

The position of the locking-device in use may be any suitable point relative to the switch-stand from which the abutment may be turned on its pivotal support to extend its free end into the path of the lever 5. As shown, the device is supported in its preferred inclined position directly upon the switchstand, the bar 7 being seated in an inclined socket 15 formed in a wing of the casing 2, with its stem 8 extending through fastened by a nut 16. In Fig. 1, one of the locking-devices is shown at each end of the throw of the lever 5 and it is supported in the manner and position represented in Fig. 2.

For locking down the switch-lever when thrown, the operator turns the abutment 10 from its normal hanging position to extend its free end into the path of rest of the lever and to retain it there he adjusts the padlock 14 into the hole 13, thereby preventing the lever from rising. To permit the lever to be thrown, the operator removes the padlock, when the abutment will automatically turn, by gravity, into its normal hanging position out of the path of the lever.

The characterizing feature of my improvement lies in so constructing the device that when it is placed in operative position the pivotal stop, or abutment, 10 will tend to assume, by gravity, a perpendicular hanging condition, and thus remove itself from obstructing the raising of the switch-lever when the stop is released from the padlock 14, which serves to retain it in the path of the lever after it has been turned by hand into the same.

WVhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. A. switch-l ever lock comprising a slotted the base of the socket below the wing and bar, and an abutment pivotally supported .on .said bar to assume by gravityv a hanging position in and in non- -p-r-ojecting relation to the slot thereof, and provided With a hole,

for the purpose set forth.

2. A switch-lever lock comprising a slotted baradapted tobe secured in inclined position on a supporting base, and an abutment plvotally supported on said bar to assume by gravity a hanging position in and in nontherein, for-the purpose set forth;

3. A swltch-lever lock COIHPIlSlHg' a'ba-r contamlngaslot eX-tendmg -1Ilt0 1t from one end, said bar terminating at its opposite end in a stem, and an abutment pivotal-1y supported on the bar to assume by gravity a hanging position in and in non-projecting relation to sa-i-d slot and provided with a hole, for the purpose set forth.

4; Aswitch-lever lock comprising a bar containing a slot extending into it from one end, said bar terminating at its oppositeend in a. stem, and an abutment pivotally supported on the bar to assume by gravity a hanging position in and in non-projecting relation to said slot andprovided With a hole and With stops to engage the bar at opposite sides of the slot therein, for the purpose set forth.

' AXEL A: STROM. In presence of- F. L. BROWNE, K; E. KLEIN. 

